Wednesday's morning self-study ended peacefully.
Everyone began their morning reading. The physics teacher, Dai Yongquan, assigned them Classical Chinese, requiring them to memorize it and announcing that he would check them in class.
Anyone who failed to recite it would have to stand as punishment. They were high school students; being made to stand because they could not recite a text was deeply embarrassing.
The students used morning self-study to memorize the passage. Liu Chuandao temporarily gave up on catching the thief and began reciting, "In the Northern Sea there is a fish, and its name is Kun. Kun is so enormous..."
As soon as he reached that point, his deskmate Pang Jiao bellowed in a voice countless decibels louder than his, "Its back! Who knows how many thousand li it spans! When it rises in fury and flies, its wings are like clouds hanging from the heavens!!!"
Her roar was so loud that Liu Chuandao's attention was completely hijacked, and he even forgot where he had stopped reciting.
Liu Chuandao glared furiously at her, but Pang Jiao had her eyes closed while reciting and failed to notice his look.
It was not just Liu Chuandao. Every student in Class 8 reacted somehow. Across the aisle, Yu Wen put in earplugs to block out the noise.
Chen Qian, for instance, could not have his passion for studying stopped even by ten or a hundred Pang Jiaos.
As for Jiang Ning, he set up a sound-reduction Formation, allowing Xue Yuantong, Chen Siyu, Geng Lu, and the others to continue memorizing quietly.
The Old Class 8 students had long grown accustomed to Pang Jiao's singing voice and had all sorts of countermeasures.
But the new students, such as Tang Jing, could not stand it.
She had originally planned to memorize the text